Traces Of A Former World
by MaizeTheYellowInkling
Summary: When an Absol saves Saffron from near death, she starts questioning things and stumbles across what remains of the former world before the flood. How will this go? How will she react? What will she do? Please Review! (This is a one shot.)


**Authors Note: Hi all, I hope you enjoy this one shot! I am sorry if it is not that good, I have no experience writing in these areas outside of splatoon. Also my next fic is in the works, but most likely won't be started til after my birthday. Take care!**

It was an average summer afternoon in Inkopolis. The city was booming tonight now that a splatfest had rolled around, so naturally every squid was fighting for their respective sides in the turf wars, and like any other splatfest, all of the city was partying. That was how popular turf wars were, and this splatfest was going to last until the morning at least. One squid was making her way out of the main plaza where the splatfest was being hosted. She had a domino mask on her face, and she had two long light yellow tentacles with a white tinge at the end of them whose length reached almost to her knees and were tied together in a big braid dangling off the back of her head. The fifteen-year-old was wearing a pink tuxedo vest with a bowtie and a white undershirt with a heart shaped piercing in her lower lip.

"Nothing better than a birthday on splatfest," Saffron yawned tiredly. She had spent the last few hours in turf war after turf war with her friends and random other evolved squids. The blonde squid began to wander off from the main plaza where the source of this huge party was going on, wearing her team's t-shirt. The splatfest theme tonight was Rollers Vs Chargers. Naturally Saffron went for team rollers, because her best weapon was the brush line of weapons. She found them so light to swing around, which made her feel like a fancy sword mistress in a skirmish whenever she fought another brush user.

"Hm?" Saffron heard a light pop tune jingle. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone, flipping it open, recognizing the number and caller ID.

"Hey dad," the blonde inkling answered, trying her best to convey a fake sense of enthusiasm when she felt so tired that if she rested her head on something soft, she would instantly fall asleep, and all of the jellyfish inhabitants of Inkopolis did not help considering how squishy soft their heads were.

"Hey, sweetheart. How was your birthday celebration?" her father sounded a bit distressed. She could safely assume what happened to him, but she would let him explain, not wanting to be rude or sound like she was trying to rush the conversation.

"It was good, dad, for the most part," Saffron responded for her birthday gift. Her parents had given her a ton of coins and told her to just go nuts and enjoy the day, leaving it to their daughter to decide when to come home. She wished she could have enjoyed her birthday a lot more than she did. However, Saffron suddenly heard the sound of a smoke detector blaring from the other line on the phone.

"W-well can you do me a favor honey? If you come home soon…! Not rushing you, of course, but if you do, can you pick up some food? From anywhere," her dad requested. Saffron gained a small smile. Her father had one small problem; he was the type to try and do everything needed with or without being asked. It seemed that once again, her mother had requested he cook, and he had no cooking ability whatsoever.

"Sure, dad. I was about to come back anyway. I'll see you soon," Saffron hung up before beginning to make her way down the street. For her to see so many other people out and about was quite normal for splatfests. The teenage squid kept her eyes to the ground, not paying many mind. She was a bit depressed the whole birthday, feeling like something was wrong, but she had no clue what, and because of that, she was feeling like her birthday was one of the last things she cared about. Her sixth sense was being pestered immensely.

Saffron looked up, groaning. She was at a dead end on the street. There were so many inklings, jellyfish and several other types of sea based anthropomorphic creatures in her way, clogging the sidewalk and making it near impossible to get through them all. Inklings did have the ability to transform into squid forms and go through their own ink. However, she was afraid if she tried to squeeze through in her squid form, she would be trampled like a bug.

"Man… I wish I wasn't such a wimp…" Saffron muttered, feeling ashamed to be so terrified of being in a crowd. Normally she could handle groups of people fine but if they were so big and so many, she would start to lose her cool. The yellow inkling made her way off to a side alley, panting. Once well away from the crowd, she had to stop trying to catch her breath. Saffron finally gathered herself, rubbing her head.

"Guess I'll take the longer route to McSquid's and double back to get home," Saffron decided that was the best place to get food at this hour. She could not be bothered to travel to the other areas with the streets this full. She hated to imagine what the public buses looked like at this hour. The yellow squid began to make her way through the alley, one after another which came off to its own level of eeriness. Some were normal, but others had trash all over and shady characters lying around, or stray animals. All of which was nothing new to the birthday girl.

After about half a mile of travelling through the many back routes and behind buildings, Saffron found herself heading through a construction zone. There were about ten signs outside explicitly exclaiming that no one other than construction personnel were allowed, but Saffron just wanted to go through the quicker route available, which was away from crowds, though it was nice to hear the Squid Sisters' music blaring from every available speaker or car radio filling the night air.

Saffron still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. It always lingered in the back of her mind. She walked by a container that had a few iron beams resting on top of them, above her and out of her sight. The yellow inkling suddenly heard another set of footsteps behind her that were shifting the gravel beneath their feet. She turned around quickly.

"Who is it?! …wha…?" Saffron was confused. She expected to find out someone had been stalking her, but when she looked down a little, she found an odd quadruped creature. The animal had dark blue skin with a thick white fur coat with a ruff around its neck. It had a single blackish blue oval on its forehead and a sickle shaped horn, as well as a scythe-like tail. It had appeared blatantly out of nowhere, as it could not have been following her at all. She would have heard the weird animal a long time ago.

"What are you?" Saffron could only ask, seeing the creature standing there. Its red eyes focused completely on her. It made an odd noise, but it did not come off like a beast trying to scare her, but felt more like a failed attempt to talk.

Saffron felt a rumble beneath her feet. The ground was beginning to shake, and she could hear screaming from a distance. Inkopolis was being hit by an earthquake. It wasn't too strong or big, but everyone in this general part of the city could feel the tremors beneath their feet. She fell over, catching herself with her hands. Saffron just took in deep breaths, trying to stay calm. There was a huge sense of panic encompassing her. The animal standing before her was not flinched by this. However, the shaking had started to affect the iron beams, causing the five huge pieces of metal begin to fall right toward the yellow squid. Saffron felt everything in that moment freeze, her heart skipping a beat. She closed her eyes, covering her head, thinking she was going to die right on that spot.

After loud clanging and crashing noises were heard, Saffron opened one eye hesitantly. The animal was beside her and they were surrounded by an odd green barrier, the iron beams lying around them. After a few minutes the earthquake had passed.

"What… what did you do?" Saffron wondered, the creature not gaining much of a response but shake off some dirt that had gotten kicked up onto its fur.

"Absol! Absol, come on! I'll be in big trouble if you run off again!" a light voice called, sounding more terrified than the yellow inkling herself did from that earthquake. Suddenly she saw a blue skinned female inkling appear from the broken part of the fence, looking around until her gaze turned to Saffron and the animal beside her.

"Oh, Absol! Thank goodness!" the pink tentacled squid exclaimed. Something was strange about this inkling, the top of her head appeared see through with a pink inside that was overlaid with yellow lights. She was wearing a white shirt with a happy jellyfish logo on the front of it.

"This is your pet?" Saffron questioned, seeing the pink inkling coming over and hugging the white furred creature.

"Oh… uh, yeah. He panicked and ran off when the earthquake hit," she explained. It was an obvious lie. The blonde inkling had met this creature well before the earthquake, almost like it had known it was coming.

"Well he saved my life! He stopped these from crushing me," Saffron exclaimed, extremely grateful. Absol stood beside the pink tentacled girl who looked at her pet in a bit of shock, shaking her head.

"Uhh, well... You must be mistaken. He's just a dog. You must have hallucinated it," she retorted, not believing it, but she was beginning to sweat nervously.

"No I didn't!" she shook her head in denial, pulling out her cellphone, "Look, why don't you come with me to mcsquids? We can talk about thi…"

"No! I have to be home. Sorry! You have a nice splatfest," the pink inkling picked up the white furred animal, which took a lot of effort and was straining her back. She was about to run off when Saffron turned on her phone's picture app, taking three pictures of the two of them before the other inkling ran away. Saffron stood there, completely confused. She never had seen something like this before.

"I'll find her to thank her later," Saffron thought, pocketing her cellphone and continuing through the construction site. She wanted to find those two and thank them appropriately, thinking it might be better to do it tomorrow so she didn't wind up looking like a crazy stalker running through the crowded streets during a splatfest. The birthday squid just focused on getting food and heading home, having no plans at all to inform her parents of her brush with death. They would not react well not one bit, no matter how she explained it. Sometimes she hated how worked up her folks could get.

The night passed by as normal from there. Saffron did not speak a word to anyone about what had happened to her yesterday, but claimed she had waited out the earthquake, though she did act more off, which her parents noticed. The yellow inkling sat at her laptop in her room.

"Maybe Squigle can tell me something…" Saffron muttered. Her room did not look like much special. Her bed was neatly made with the bright orange blankets covering it. Dangling above the headboard was a small frame holding hats and masks, which acted more as trophies than personal effects of her own. Her computer was set up on her dresser with a small chair in front of it, a cheaper alternative to a desk though it hurt her legs a bit.

"She called it Absol, right…?" Saffron scratched her head. That incident only happened last night. It all felt like a dream to her. She was hoping maybe the internet would have some semblance of a clue toward what that odd creature she met was last night. She began to type away into the search bar, and very soon after, she came across a result. Saffron made sure her bedroom door was locked, taking a quick peek before she opened the webpage. It pulled up a website that seemed to be about extinct species.

"What?" Saffron chirped in confusion when she found a section called Pokémon, which the section explained about how there were so many types of different animals and creatures that supposedly existed on the world before the great flood occurred and wiped out most life on earth, including all of humanity, and then the squids evolved to inklings as a replacement for humanity.

The webpage explained to her how Pokémon all had unique and special abilities while they coexisted with humans around the same time, and were most likely wiped out at the same time as well. Several images displayed various ancient fossils. An archaeologist named Coal was able to discover some of the extinct Pokémon's names, and Absol was one of the few listed.

"No way… maybe I really did hallucinate last night," Saffron began to doubt the events, thinking that pink squid really was right. She knew there was no way anyone alive could see an extinct animal. One of the pictures on her computer monitor displayed a very water damaged scroll, depicting an elder standing beside an Absol as they looked out onto the sunset. A deep metaphor about peace was written under it, but she was not an art expert, nor was that the main thing on her mind.

"…why me?" she whimpered, looking at the pictures on her cellphone. The pet to the pink squid was an actual Absol, and it was not just a coined name for that pup. The blonde inkling was afraid, these Pokémon sounded and acted like monsters, as she also found tales about how some Pokémon wanted to wreak havoc. It was great though that the Absol had saved her last night, it at least showed that it was kind.

"I guess I don't have much choice… I gotta find them!" Saffron thought this was a mystery that had enraptured her mind's curiosity. She had to find that Absol and its owner, not only to try and get some answers for this, but to also thank them properly for saving her life. The teenager grabbed her small bag and tossed it onto her back, leaving her room. Her parents appeared to still be slumbering, and Saffron did not want to bother them or worry them. She headed straight out the front door, letting it close behind her. She lived in an apartment complex on Eelectric Avenue, but it was nothing special. She began to head downstairs and into the bright and sunny Inkopolis.

Now that splatfest was over, everything in Inkopolis had calmed down quite drastically. Saffron knew all of her friends probably had been up all night fighting for their sides in said splatfest. She recalled one time when she was found asleep in a puddle of her own ink because of how tired she had been. Embarrassment aside, she was happy to live near the main plaza. She thought it might be best to start querying there first.

Saffron arrived to the main plaza where things had calmed down a lot. The stages were removed, though now it felt a lot emptier today than usual. The many squids there were resting to recover from how hard and how long they had been having fun in turf wars. There still were a few inklings roaming around and enjoying the peaceful day with their friends and or close ones.

"Hey, have you seen this squid?" Saffron grabbed the shoulder of the first random inkling passing by who had blue tentacles done up into a Mohawk style. She presented the phone displaying the picture of the pink squid trying to pick up the Absol so she could run off in her weird hurried rush. He looked at it for a second.

"Ask a waitress in the coffee shop. One of them's named Jesse, and she has great memory," he suggested. A lot of inklings and jellyfish loved the coffee shop, even if they did not drink coffee they had the best sweets available.

"Okay, thanks," Saffron nodded and then went off, making her way into the nearby coffee shop. A barren atmosphere took place, as there were only a few customers inside at the moment.

"Hey, uh… can I talk to Jesse?" Saffron requested aloud. The very waitress soon appeared from behind the counter, with red tentacles that were tied up into a bow, and a black coat and glasses.

"Is something wrong?" Jesse questioned, not knowing who this yellow inkling was. Saffron did not like how the waitress seemed to focus on her heart piercing. Bushing it aside, she presented the phone and the same photograph.

"I'm looking for the squid in this photo. I have to talk to her," she explained, not going into complex detail about what happened. She hoped this waitress would not drop the ball on information.

"Yeah! She's one of my favorite customer's. Her name's Miller. We talk a lot whenever she is over," Jesse hummed, knowing by heart the friendship between her and the pink squid, though this favoritism was from the size of the tips being left by Miller. Saffron had a smile on her face now that she was on the right track.

"Oh, good. Can you tell me where she lives? I really have to pay her back for saving my life," Saffron requested. Jesse was hesitant, but the blonde squid did not appear anywhere threatening, and her demeanor showed no signs of hostility either.

"Alright. She lives at 2214 on Clamcake Avenue," Jesse answered. Saffron smiled, glad to finally get that information, though a long walk had to be taken.

"Thank you, and take care," Saffron bid her farewell, and then she left the coffee shop. She had to get to Clamcake Avenue, no matter how long it took. She had no idea what it was, but her mind's curiosity aside, she was feeling very determined to meet them again, but it did feel like she wanted to just get some answers more than anything. She just tried to stay calm while continuing on her long walk.

After a near two-hour walk, Saffron arrived to Clamcake Avenue, a regular suburban neighborhood. She was trying to take it easy, her legs throbbing in agony. She had not taken much of a break, having decided to head straight here without using a bus. At times like this, she wished the bus schedule for the main plaza was more useful. It never was accurate and had made her miss a lot of plans.

"2214, was it?" she muttered while tapping a finger against her heart shaped piercing. Each home looked gorgeous. It was a type of neighborhood she would want to move into when she moved out of her parents' place. It only took a moment before Saffron found the right address on the side of one of the mailboxes. She looked up at the two-story home, in front of being a lovely garden as well, where the lawn and plants were treated with care. She wondered what the back of the house would look like.

"Well… here goes nothing," Saffron sighed, not really able to psyche herself up. She stepped up the few steps up the front porch and approached the door. Hesitantly, she knocked on it. After a few seconds, there was no response. She pressed the doorbell with one of her tentacles, holding it down as she heard the ringing from outside.

"What?!" suddenly the door flew open, and Miller stood there. One eye contact, and the atmosphere was immersed in awkwardness and silence.

"Umm, hi there, Miller," Saffron broke the silence, greeting her.

"Wha... what are you doing here?" Miller responded, shocked. She thought she would never see this person again after that odd encounter between them last night. The yellow inkling nervously smiled. Now that she was here, she was a bit more unnerved for some odd reason.

"I wanted to come thank you properly… for your pet saving my life," Saffron described, wishing to leave out the topic of extinct animals until the moment felt right, not wanting to be completely rude or looking crazy in case she was entirely wrong.

"I told you, didn't I? He did nothing. You must have dreamt it last night," Miller stood firm, but she had a horrible lying face. She always had a nervous sweat across her forehead. The yellow squid put her foot against the door, as if to send a message to her to not even consider slamming the door in her face.

"I know what I saw. Let me ask you this… do you know anything about Pokémon?" Saffron questioned. The pink inkling rubbed her head, looking entirely baffled. She sighed, dropping her serious face.

"No-no... I mean, yeah… no, I mean… uhh… Octilly!" Miller randomly cried out to the upstairs, letting Saffron step inside the wooden home, where odd dolls lay on a nearby shelf like someone collected them. The wooden floorboards creaked underneath her feet, practically telling her how old this house really was.

"Miller, what is it? I was about to start my bath..." a deeper girl's voice spoke out at the top of the steps. She revealed herself to be, shockingly, an octoling, a race that had evolved from octopi instead of squids. This octarian however had yellow bumps running straight across her oddly fashioned tentacles, but her suction cups were yellow. She was no ordinary octopus.

"Oh… we have company," Octilly sighed, looking irritated, clearly wanting to just laze in warm water for a while. She began to come down the steps. It was surprising to Saffron to see an octoling. They were supposedly beaten in the great turf war from ages ago. It was safe to assume she had been living in secret with Miller. Something deeper was going on here, and Saffron was hoping to get answers.

"Hi there… I'm Saffron. I wanted to come talk to you about your Absol… it saved my life last night," Saffron said. Octilly reached the bottom of the steps and walked right past the two into the living room, letting them follow. The octarian lay down on the couch. The living room looked strange, with a lot of damaged antiques on the shelves, tables, anywhere available aside from the floor or the coffee table. They did not even have a television.

"I'm Octilly. That's my best friend, Miller… she told me about what happened," Octilly said, acting flat toned but more coming off as if she was bored by anything. She beside a shelf that had odd different colored balls that were different in design, but they all looked horribly damaged, cracked and scarred, like they had been through a huge thrashing. The octoling grabbed a completely red ball that had a black circle around, a red button on the front, and a black groove on the sides with a red stripe in the center of them.

"She did? So I wasn't hallucinating! I knew it!" Saffron snickered, feeling greatly relieved. Miller now looked ashamed to have been lying like this, though Saffron didn't want to consider calling her out for this, "Speaking of which, where is Absol?"

Octilly answered by holding up the red ball and clicking the button, the bottom of the ball opening, and suddenly a bright red light emerged. Absol appeared out of nowhere in front of them. A startled Saffron fell back, tripping over the coffee table and falling flat onto her back.

"What the… what just happened?! How did you do that?!" Saffron was startled and confused. Absol did not react at all to her outburst, but was more interested in lying on the floor beside Octilly who lay on the couch. She put the red ball on the coffee table.

"We just let Absol out of his poké ball…" Miller simply said while helping up their guest.

"A cherish ball, to be exact. There are a lot of types of poké balls… or there were anyway," Octilly added, acting very calm given the situation. Their guest was terrified, and at this point, Saffron could safely assume that this Absol was definitely an actual Pokémon, since these two were using an item that the articles covered which were fossil fragments of poké balls, though those contained nothing inside any of them, according to the extinction article on Pokémon.

"So you do have a Pokémon? They aren't extinct?" Saffron did her best to remain calm. She never really anticipated a near death experience on her birthday or to find out that a species was not entirely extinct, or at least one animal from the hundreds of species of Pokémon. The octoling just lay on the couch with her arms behind her head, staring at the ceiling and exhaling.

"Umm… each poké ball on that shelf has a different Pokémon within," Miller stated, petting Absol who seemed content. There were dozens of poké balls on that shelf, thirty at most.

"We're Pokémon too," Octilly suddenly confessed.

"Oc-Octilly! We're supposed to keep that secret…" a then dismayed Miller reminded. Saffron was confused now.

"You two look like regular squid kids to me… and, err… octopi kids," Saffron though mentally asked herself why she was arguing about this. She was standing in front of a collection of extinct animals from eras ago. If these two were Pokémon, they sure looked young. It made her wonder if they weren't so much as extinct as they were just in hiding somehow.

"I was an Octillery, and she was an Inkay. Here's an old picture of us," Octilly continued. Even if she was being doubted, she did not change her laid back tone. She pulled out her wallet and presented it to the yellow squid, who then saw an image left in the wallet.

"Hm?" Saffron had an eyebrow quirk immediately. The picture showed an octopus Pokémon, and a tiny cute squid Pokémon with a transparent pink head, both being held by a boy with spiky blonde hair in a beanie cap, a brown backpack and a yellow and white vest. The three looked positively radiant in this ancient photograph. Though the photo did show clear damage from the age.

"That's us. Like I said. She was an Inkay, and I was an Octillery. One day, we're having a nice day fighting a gym leader. The next thing we know, our trainer was crying and telling us to not miss him," Octilly explained the last memory they had of their trainer, before he had recalled them to their poké balls.

"It's hard to miss someone you spent years with though. Jeremy was an honorable trainer who only would fight fair," Miller commented. Trainers were the ones that raised and trained Pokémon. There were so many types of people, and each one's individual work was different. Saffron looked at the human in the photo. She hated to imagine what was going through Jeremy's head when the great flood disaster first struck.

"Wow… I'm so sorry," Saffron extended her condolences for their lost loved one, returning the wallet back to the former Octillery.

"Our memories are vague, but the last thing we remember was Jeremy recalling us to our poké balls while he cried. When our poké balls reopened, decades had passed and we were in some weird place underneath Inkopolis," Miller continued from whatever memories could recall, though this story sounded like it had another part to it that was being left out. The octoling sighed.

"We got found by some octarians, who decided it was wise to put us in some chain of experiments. In the end of it all, we had lost all of our moves, abilities, and we had these weird bodies. About a month after our alteration, the researchers who had transformed us released us, but claimed they had no memory of what they did," Octilly continued the story. Something had happened in the weird Octo Valley. The two had crawled up to Inkopolis shortly after, and from there on had accepted their new lives.

"Before we left though, we found Jeremy's bag. All of his other Pokémon's poké balls were in it. We decided to honor him and make sure they all survived, just like Absol here," Miller sniffled as she reached the end of the story. A silent tension filled the room. Saffron felt horrible, knowing she had come here to thank them, and to ask them about the whole extinction quandary, but she got more answers than she ever could have hoped for. Sadly, this brought another thing to her mind.

"I'm sorry you two have been through so much. But why are you trusting me with this info? I'm just some random squid," Saffron never found herself as anything but average. Some of her friends would describe her as bland, and in a good way. She watched Absol get recalled to its cherish ball before it was placed back on the shelf by the octoling Pokémon.

"I'm sorry as well, but I ran the other night with Absol, because I didn't want us to be found out. We want to be happy with our second chance at lives, but it's really hard. Not knowing how the world will react doesn't help at all," Miller apologized for running away like she had done. This was not the answer Saffron expected. Octilly stood up, yawning.

"That was what trainers had to do. They had to put trust in random people for battles, items, badges… some people are bad of course, but you won't get anywhere without risking your trust to begin with," Octilly exclaimed. She also felt a lot better to have talked to someone about their pasts. Saffron did not know what to say, and Miller was pondering if this was fate at work. The yellow squid had heard tales of what the former world was like, but only now did she have any real confirmation on it. Imagining a world based on trust sounded near perfect.

"You're trusting me even if I have your Absol on picture and know this all by heart?" Saffron just had to get confirmation on this while holding her cellphone. The other two in the room nodded, not planning on using any form of violence, or remotely arguing.

"No one said trust was always successful. We watched Jeremy go through that a few times," Octilly simply claimed. Saffron shook her head. She would be dead if Miller had not brought the Absol around her. That Pokémon had the great ability to sense natural disasters as they approached. she had no idea if it was fate or not. However, Saffron did the right thing. She tweaked her cellphone for a bit, and hit the delete button on all of the pictures. In a few seconds, they were gone.

"Well… I said I wanted to come thank you properly for your Absol saving my life. Is there anything I can do to repay you two?" Saffron offered. She was glad to be meeting them, and she owed them for saving her life after all. Otherwise it would have been cut drastically short on her birthday yesterday.

"Just keeping quiet about all this is more than enough to repay us," Miller reassured. However, her octarian friend had other ideas in mind. For being lazy, Octilly came off as more devious.

"For you, maybe, but I'd like to know she has a reason to keep it secret. Thanks for deleting the pics, but how about you give us a huge hand?" Octilly offered to give her the chance to help at something way bigger with more importance than simply her word. The blonde squid looked uncertain on what to say.

"Err… sure. I mean, I said anything…" Saffron nodded, though she felt afraid of what would happen. She was afraid the octarian would want a lot more from her than she could give, but a debt was to be repaid. She watched as Octilly began looking around all the poké balls on the shelf.

"Here she is," Octilly hummed, presenting a mostly white poké ball that had red on the sides and black on the top, with a red stripe running down the center. She tossed it to Saffron and she caught it, confusedly examining the sphere.

"What is it?" wondered Saffron.

"It's a timer ball," Miller claimed, looking unsure about this, but she was getting a good idea about what her best friend had in mind.

"The youngest Pokémon with us is in there. She was fond of Jeremy, and you seem like someone with a big heart. The point is… I want you to raise it for us," Octilly requested, looking quite happy. She somehow kept a straight face about all of this. Saffron tilted her head. She decided to see for herself, hitting the button on the front of the timer ball. The bottom of the timer ball fell open, and a bright red light shot out. She was confused at what appeared before her. It was a candle shaped Pokémon that had a bright purple flame burning atop its head, with melted wax covering her right eye, her left bright yellow eye still was visible.

"Meet Litwick," Octilly hummed, "She's a ghost fire type, and…"

"Oh my gossssh! She's so adorable!" Saffron exclaimed very loudly, hugging the candle Pokémon tightly in her arms. The Litwick had a smile on her face, seeming happy to be held by someone.

"Should we tell her about how Litwick can suck away life energy?" Miller whispered her question, quite concerned since Litwick did have a few secrets to it, just like any other Pokémon.

"Nah. Let them be happy. I'm sure Saffron has enough life energy for two anyway," Octilly shrugged, not caring in the least.

"I can really have her?" Saffron had to ask, not able to believe this. She was in love with Litwick.

"Yes," hummed Octilly, she and the pink inkling nodding.

"Yeah… look, we were Pokémon, but now that we lost our moves and everything, we've kinda become the only thing to fill in as trainers," Miller started, though her friend stepped in to explain it since she had a lot more of a calmer head in this conversation, which maybe it was her lazy attitude that helped with that.

"You're not adopting a pet. You need to know that any Pokémon that you catch or get is an extension of yourself. Your care, your love, everything about you that your Pokémon adapts to. We can't take care of all the Pokémon, and frankly we'd be grateful to have someone else reliable around, especially a new friend," Octilly exclaimed further. Saffron looked down to Litwick, the living candle looking up with a smile, making an odd noise to indicate its pleasure with her new trainer.

"I'll do it! I'll raise her like she was my own flesh and ink," the blonde squid agreed, happily pulling out the timer ball and recalling the Litwick to it. She really could not believe what one night could lead to. She had to question herself once more if this was fate, though she was aware that she had to keep it all a secret.

"That's great to hear. Here, why don't we trade phone numbers. You're our friend now after all," Octilly smiled, pulling out a pen and writing down two phone numbers on the yellow girl's forearm.

"Okay…" Saffron, irritated that she had to have it written on her forearm, did the same for the octarian and wrote her number down on the palm of her hand.

"Trust… so this is what pure trust feels like," Saffron had to admit. She never had felt complete trust like this before. These two former Pokémon felt so honest since they were past the secrecy deal. She could understand why they were too afraid to inform Inkopolis that an entire extinct species was not exactly extinct. No one could guess how they would react, and some would want personal profits as one of many issues, and all the publicity that would definitely steal personal information from them. It was too risky to reveal the truth yet.

"Thank you again so much," Saffron bowed a little in thanks, but then she realized the time when she looked at the nearby clock. It had been two hours since she arrived here. She never expected this visit to go anywhere near like this, "Sorry, but I have to get going now."

"Do you really have to go?" Miller asked, sounding saddened.

"Yeah. I have to go get my rewards for the splatfest last night," their new friend nodded. The splatfest normally lasted overnight and rewards were handed out later in the day.

"Well get going then. We'll see you around," Octilly insisted while the octarian made her way to the steps. The two bid their new friend farewell, watching her head out the door with a bright smile across her face and the timer ball safely tucked away into her shirt pocket.

"You both take care!" Saffron waved before running off. She had a long trip to make. Miller stood at the doorway, watching her leave, and then closed the door gently, looking to her octoling friend.

"Are you sure she can keep this a secret? We didn't tell her the rest of the truth…" Miller quirked, her friend stopping halfway up the staircase and sighing in annoyance.

"We already put a lot of stress on her. We didn't need to add on by stating that tons of poké balls are scattered across the world. Who knows how many others have their own?" Octilly retorted. This was the first sign of hostility that was seen from her friend in quite some time. Miller looked down, a bit saddened to be scolded.

"I'm sorry, Miller… I get worked up knowing that no matter what, we may have to become trainers ourselves one day to free Pokémon from their poké balls, and possibly their trainers hands." Octilly admitted, but then slowly smiled.

"Besides. We just made a new trainer today that can help us when that day comes. We need to be more open and confident. Now please, let me just go take a bath." Octilly continued her way upstairs, leaving her dear friend. Miller entered the living room once more and looked at a picture of their trainer that was somewhat hidden behind a plant on the nearby table, wondering if the future was looking grimmer than bright, but opening up to one person was a great start to her. She then walked away, wanting to get some sleep herself, feeling a bit exhausted.

Saffron was full of energy once more, but this time she had done herself a favour and had gotten on a bus after barely catching it before it could try and leave the bus stop. She sat in the very back of the public transportation, holding the timer ball in her hands.

"I love you, Litwick. I'll make sure you have a great life," Saffron kissed the timer ball. She suddenly had an idea, digging around in her pockets before pulling out a black ink pen. She began to scribble away on the back of the timer ball. Its mostly white coloration made for a great glorified blank sheet of paper.

"Ta-dah…!" the blonde squid smiled. She had drawn a heart on the back of the timer ball which matched her piercing. There was also a flame in the center of the heart drawing.

"I don't know if you can see what I'm doing while you're in there, Litwick, but I hope you like it," Saffron hummed as she put the timer ball in her shirt pocket. Once she collected her rewards, she planned to spend the entire day with her new Pokémon. It was not like there would be many opponents at the battle tower today. Most squids rarely participate in turf wars immediately after a splatfest, and normally just rested the day after to recover, since they would be up so late playing said splatfest. Saffron really had no idea what to expect in the future. The world had so many weird secrets, and she and others had so much yet to discover, but as long as she had her new friends and her Litwick, Saffron would be determined to face anything head on, no matter what.


End file.
